The Birds defense was the only thing worse than their offense in a Thanksgiving day massacre Thursday, 45-14.

For the second straight week, Philly's defense relinquished five touchdown passes to an inferior (or at least seemingly inferior) football team. The Lions, now 4-7, dropped the Eagles (also 4-7) to a game and a half behind the Giants in the NFC East.

But their play on the field begged the question, "can they even win another game this year?"

A playoff berth seems completely out of reach, as does any chance of cohesive functioning for the Birds the rest of the way this season after their last two performances.

Here's a futile attempt to make sense of the Thanksgiving Day disasterthat left Eagles fans saying "Thanks for nothing," Thursday.

Get on the same page

It's Week 12. Time for the Eagles to get on the same page. Communication issues still prevented the Eagles offense from firing on all cylinders Thursday.

The Eagles defense also looked like it was still suffering from a lack of confidence (in the wake of Philly's 45-17 loss in Week 11), allowing the Lions to sustain march after march downfield. With Nolan Carroll sustaining likely a season-ending injury the secondary looked futile against Matt Stafford (27-for-38, 337 yards, 5 touchdowns)and the Lions air attack.

After a Cedric Thornton sack looked to give the Eagles some hope of escaping a late-second quarter Lions red zone try without too much damage, Stafford found Calvin Johnson (who had eight grabs for 93 yards and three toughdowns)in the left corner of the end zone for the QB's third TD strike of the half, giving the Lions a 24-7 halftime advantage. The Eagles, obviously, would never recover.

On the Eagles first drive, their fatal flaw quickly peered it's ugly head. A costly offensive facemask penalty pushed Philly toward the outer reaches of field goal range, and from 50-yards out, Caleb Sturgis hit the post and failed to get points for the Birds after a 14-play drive.

The Eagles also surrendered quite a few big plays, with two 20-plus yard gains (two of many) spurring Detroit to its first touchdown at the 2:10 mark in the first quarter (giving the Lions a 7-0 lead).

Jordan Matthews, Jason Peters and Josh Huff all left the game due to injuries at some point, leaving an already hurt offense thin at key positions (though Matthews and Huff would return). Sanchez was sacked sixtimes and coughed up a key fumble in the third quarter, and was really a non factor in the game.

Stuck in the mud

The Eagles offense got as stale an open bag of potato chips after their first-quarter touchdown, with three and outs and just -7 yards of offense in the second quarter.

DeMarco Murray didn't help things, as the running back startedgained just oneyard on his first seven runsbefore a 19-yard run late in the first. He would wind up with just 30 yards on 14 carries.

With the Eagles trailing the offense become one dimensional, and therefore predictable. Philly was really unable to get things going offensively, mirroring their putrid attempt against the Buccaneers back home in Week 12.

Detroit outgained Philly 430-227, and out possessed them 37:06 to 22:54.